


Those Who Don't Like Cats

by May



Category: Homestuck
Genre: Gen, Pale Romance | Moirallegiance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-06-06
Updated: 2013-06-06
Packaged: 2017-12-14 04:33:38
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,136
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/832793
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/May/pseuds/May
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>“Some humans like cats, some humans don’t,” said Doctor Lalonde. He looked up at her, shifting so that the length of his unbroken horn pressed rigid into the curve of her palm, his expression quizzical.</p>
<p>Lalonde wondered if she had just become too used to being flippantly cryptic like that. “But I bet it’s like that for trolls, too, really? Some are kind to cats, some are…not.”</p>
            </blockquote>





	Those Who Don't Like Cats

**Author's Note:**

> I been brain-fried, electrified  
> Infected and injectified  
> Vivosectified and fed pesticides  
> My face is all cut up  
> 'Cause my radar's all shut up  
> Nurse, I need a check-up  
> From the neck up  
> I'm batty
> 
> They used and abused me  
> Battered and bruised me  
> Red wires, green wires  
> Stuck 'em right through me  
> So hear my batty word  
> And exercise a little prudence  
> When dealing with  
> Humans
> 
> \-- Batty Rap (Robin Williams), Ferngully 
> 
> Note for implied cruelty to animals.

“Pick one up, but be more careful than you would even be, usually,” said Doctor Lalonde. Equius, unusually bulky in his build, but still with the limber, simian wiriness that all trolls seemed to have, reached out one hand. He was crouching, his brow glistened with sweat. It was summertime and, even though the Lalonde mansion was further away from the city centre and he never went out under the sun, Equius was usually clearly affected by the heat.

This was a more specific kind of sweat than that, however…it was the result of his taking so much painfully excruciating care with what he did. The box, under its mild little light, squirmed with the silky dark bodies of a reasonable sized litter of kittens. They were old enough, now, that they could be more freely handled and a couple of them, apparently noticing company, blinked out into room. The little family had been rescued not too long ago.

Equius slowly lowered his hand into the box, brushing one feline slightly with one finger. The kitten jerked at the sensation, and he hurriedly pulled his hand back.

“Forgive me, Doctor, I can’t…” Equius held his hand with the other. “I think I could still harm them.”

Doctor Lalonde placed one hand on the back of his head and shushed him, softly. He shook, just a little, as she weaved her fingers between the strands of his hair. “You obviously care a lot more about them than a lot of humans do.”

He was quiet, then. “Things are much less clear with humans,” he said, after a while.

Lalonde let her fingertips wander up to the bases of his horns, and moved carefully around the base of the one that was broken and scarred over with yellowish white. He leaned back into her hand, still awkwardly, though she could see the muscles in his arms loosen, just a little. Trolls were rawboned and ectomorphic, and muscle moved visibly when Equius did.

“Some humans like cats, some humans don’t,” said Doctor Lalonde. He looked up at her, shifting so that the length of his unbroken horn pressed rigid into the curve of her palm, his expression quizzical.

Lalonde wondered if she had just become too used to being flippantly cryptic like that. “But I bet it’s like that for trolls, too, really? Some are kind to cats, some are…not.”

“It tends to be more that you know who would like cats and who would not. That you know who likes cats and who should not.”

Doctor Lalonde would have said that there were a lot of idiosyncrasies that she did not understand, but Equius, staring into the box of kittens, didn’t seem to be wanting too much of a discussion.

“Hold out your hand,” she said. Equius did so, his palm flat and his fingers straight. Carefully, Lalonde took one of the squirming bodies from the box; it curled its limbs around her fingers, its huge green eyes darting around the room. She placed it on Equius’ palm, and he watched it raise itself onto its small, stubby legs. That’s all he did and Lalonde didn’t urge him to do anything more. There was the sense of patience, of knowing the one you looked after had too much to learn to know how to make any moves of their own. The kitten blinked into his face, gave a questioning meow, before springing off and down onto his angled knee. Equius was still as it righted itself, its tiny head surveying the room. Lalonde scooped it up, again, and put it back with its siblings.

Equius stood up, and pushed his sunglasses up the bridge of his nose. Trolls, on the whole, were small and denser than humans, but this was a generalisation, and Equius had a few inches on Doctor Lalonde. It had taken a while for Lalonde to get used to the sole other presence in the house being tall and stoic, instead of petite and sharp.

“Doctor Lalonde,” he said, still watching the kittens. His voice was softer than she thought it seemed like it should be. “Would you like to see the mother?”

He was given a choice of rooms, and it stood to reason that he’d chosen something close to the labs. There had been no point in keeping anything clandestine after the trolls had arrived, after all. He called the house a hive, and his room a respite block, and then had, to begin with, almost always stuttered into an apology. Lalonde had told him he could call the house and everything in it anything he wanted. His room contained a troll slime pod, and Lalonde had helped him calibrate the proper dosage that the slime needed. Other than that, it more resembled a workshop than a place to rest in.

On a central table lay a small figure carefully draped in a towel. Doctor Lalonde stood by as Equius grabbed the corner of the towel and pulled it away. At a glance, the cat was merely black and silver. Close up, it was clear that the tuffs of black fur just about fell short of the edges of the metal, exposing scarred, jagged flesh.

“It was simple enough to replace what was missing,” said Equius. He poked around the animal, and there was something casual in his movement. This was, Lalonde realised, a space where he was used to being careful by sheer habit and did not need to strain himself in order not to break anything. “She won’t be ready to wake up for a few more days, at least, but it seems that wiring the tendons into the machinery is very much like what I’ve done before.”

It was common knowledge that trolls used biotech, and so it stood to reason that Equius had a good enough surgical expertise in order to complete the intricate task. He placed his fingers delicately above the matted fur, and carefully held a limb in place with the other hand. “Here, I still need to make sure the metal is connected to the skin so that there’s no chance of it disconnecting.”

He placed his hands palm-down, then, on either side of the cat, and looked up at Lalonde. He expected something, then, he needed something. Lalonde approached the table, and took one of his long hands between hers.

“Equius,” she began. “Were you one of the trolls who should…hate cats?”  
He lowered his face a little. “Not as much as some were required to, no.” There was the minute shaking of his hands, again, then, as they were cold between Doctor Lalonde’s own.

“Would it have been easier if you had been allowed to?” It did not feel strange, speaking in tongues.

He lowers his head, just a little. “Yes.”

**Author's Note:**

> Written as a fill for a HSWC bonus round.


End file.
